Donald Edward Jones

Donald Edward “Don” Jones passed away on September 10, 2026, just 10 days after celebrating his 98th birthday - a milestone he had very much hoped to reach.

Don is survived by his seven children: Christopher Jones (Diane Catanzaro), Martin Jones (Lisa), Gregory Jones (Grace), Pamela Thompson, Jeanne Thompson, Joanne Thompson, and Christine Jones Gabel (James). He is also survived by his grandchildren, Sydney Jones, Spencer Jones, Logan Gabel and Delanie Gabel, as well as many beloved nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, and great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 54 years, MaryLou “Terry” Jones; his parents, Edward Jones and Eudora Dixon Jones; and his siblings who passed before him.

Don was a father, grandfather, uncle, great-uncle and great-great-uncle, and his legacy lives on through the generations of the family he loved.

Born August 31, 1928, in coastal North Carolina, Don was the sixth of eight surviving children of Edward Jones and Eudora Dixon Jones. He grew up in the rural communities of Newport and Broad Creek during the Great Depression, in a home without electricity or running water. His family farmed, fished, hunted and raised much of what they ate, and hard work was simply part of life. Don often recalled plowing fields behind a mule when he was still small enough to reach up for the handles and picking tobacco for a nickel an hour.

That upbringing shaped the independence, resourcefulness, determination and unmistakable sense of humor that would define him throughout his life.

Don graduated from high school at just 16 years old. During his senior year, representatives from the FBI came to his small North Carolina community recruiting young men and women for clerical positions in Washington, D.C. Don answered the call, left home at 16 and entered on duty with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on June 7, 1945. He began in the FBI’s Identification Bureau, classifying, searching and matching fingerprints - the unlikely beginning of what would become a remarkable 35-year career with the Bureau.

At 19, Don married Esther “Flip” Filippi, whom he had met while they were both working in the Identification Bureau. Together they had two sons, Christopher and Martin.

Don’s FBI career was interrupted in 1952 when he was drafted into the United States Marine Corps. During his military service, he helped create and served in the Criminal Investigation Division. Following his discharge in 1954, he returned to the FBI and continued his education, earning a degree in accounting from Southeastern University. He subsequently attended the FBI Academy at Quantico and became a Special Agent in 1957.

Over the next several decades, Don served in FBI offices including Baltimore, New York City and St. Louis. His assignments ranged from bank robberies and organized crime investigations to major federal cases. It was also during his years in Baltimore that Don first met MaryLou “Terry” Thompson, who would later become his wife.

During his years in New York, Don worked extensively on organized crime investigations and represented the FBI in competitive pistol shooting, winning the Delaware State Pistol Championship in 1962.

In 1964, Don married MaryLou Ulrich Thompson, known to everyone as “Terry.” Don brought his two sons, Christopher and Martin, from his previous marriage to Flip, while Terry brought her three daughters, Pamela, Jeanne and Joanne, from her previous marriage. Together, Don and Terry later welcomed two children of their own, Gregory and Christine, creating a blended family of seven children and beginning a marriage that would last 54 years until Terry’s death in 2018.

Don’s years in New York also brought one of the defining turns of his career. In 1969, while working on a case connected to the office of U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Don and two fellow agents signed an affidavit concerning alleged perjury by Roy Cohn. The action drew the attention of highly placed officials within the Bureau, and Don was ultimately given a choice: resign or accept a disciplinary transfer.

After more than 20 years with the FBI, resignation was never really an option.

Don accepted the transfer and was given 24 hours to report to St. Louis.

That unexpected turn changed the course of the Jones family’s life. Don arrived in St. Louis at 3 a.m., while Terry remained behind temporarily to sell their New Jersey home and prepare the family for the move. Soon the family was heading west in their station wagon to St. Louis - initially a place Don had never planned to call home - but would become home for the rest of his life.

In St. Louis, Don continued the work and independent approach that had defined his career. He later became Resident Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Belleville, Illinois office.

Former colleague I.C. Smith captured Don particularly well in his book Inside the FBI, describing him as “exceptionally resourceful” and a man who “went his own way.” Smith acknowledged that men like Don could sometimes be a manager’s nightmare, but concluded with perhaps one of the greatest professional compliments Don could have received:

“It was the Don Joneses who made the reputation of the FBI.”

After 35 years of service, Don retired from the FBI in 1980.

Retirement lasted about three weeks.

He soon joined Trans World Airlines as a Security Director, ultimately overseeing security for TWA. During his 17 years with the airline, his work took him around the world and placed him alongside celebrities, presidents including Ronald Reagan, international leaders and Pope John Paul II. After 17 years with TWA, Don finally retired, bringing to a close more than five decades spent in law enforcement, security and public service.

For all Don accomplished professionally, however, his greatest and most enduring legacy was his family.

The family always came back together around summers spent at their favorite place, the coastal beaches of North Carolina. Don helped create that tradition by designing and helping build two family vacation homes in Emerald Isle. The first, The Shearwater, became their original gathering place. Later, he designed and built the family’s oceanfront home, The Cloudburner, so named by the workers who joked that the towering home seemed to reach the clouds. At the time, it was the tallest house in Emerald Isle.

For decades, those homes became the backdrop for family summers, bringing together children, grandchildren and generations of the family Don loved.

Even after The Cloudburner was sold in 2009, Don continued returning to the coast and bringing together as much of the family as possible. North Carolina was where his story began, and throughout his 98 years, it remained a place he always returned to.

After Terry’s death in 2018, Don remained fiercely independent and deeply connected to his family. With their support, he continued living independently in his own home until the age of 96. Following a serious fall in 2024, Don transitioned to skilled nursing care in early 2025 where his family continued to surround and support him daily.

Don lived through nearly a century of extraordinary change, from a childhood without electricity or running water to a career that took him around the world. He was a son of the Depression, a United States Marine, an FBI Special Agent, a security executive, a husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

He worked hard. He lived boldly. He remained fiercely independent. He loved his family and never lost the wit, stubbornness and sense of humor that made him unmistakably Don.

He reached 98.

And 10 days later, on September 10, 2026 - remarkably, the same date his mother had died 55 years earlier, Don’s long and extraordinary life came to a close.

Memorials are appreciated in lieu of flowers to: Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation 

Please join Don’s family as they gather to celebrate his remarkable life on October 22, 2026.

Visitation will begin at 11:30 am at John L. Ziegenhein and Sons Funeral Home, South County Chapel, 4830 Lemay Ferry Rd. St. Louis, Missouri 63129 with a Celebration of Life at 12:30 also at the funeral Home. Inurnment will be in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri